Jan. 22, 2012: 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

We have all heard the saying, "Don't judge a book by its cover," which means that you shouldn't prejudge the worth or value of something, by its outward appearance alone. Our Lord has been teaching that lesson to me each time he sends me out to meet someone, but I have been a slow learner. One day I received a phone call from a lady who wanted me to visit her twin brother who was in a hospice dying from cancer. When I arrived at the hospice, the staff warned me, "Father, we want to caution you. That man is angry and he has been cursing us and urinating his room in protest. We have to use a diaper and catheter for him." I thought to myself, 'Lord, couldn't you send someone else for this man?'

I went to the room and saw a grown man in his early 60's in a diaper. His hair was long and disheveled, his face was gaunt, and he was missing many teeth. The staff told me that he had addiction issues as well. This man fit the stereotype of 'homeless' perfectly. Yet something on the windowsill was telling me that my perception was not right. It was an old black and white photo of two children--a boy and a girl. That photo was a picture of his twin sister and him. I began to listen to his story, and it was not a story of a man who was brought up in poverty or in a broken family. On the contrary, he was raised in a good Catholic family, received a Catholic education, earned both Masters and PhD degrees, and had taught as a professor at a college. He said that he was married with three grown children, but that he was estranged from all of them. He knew that he had made some serious mistakes in his life where he put his career and other pursuits ahead of his family and God. I heard his sincere and heartfelt Confession and gave him the Anointing of the Sick. Not long after my visit, his three daughters went to see him, and he was able to see photos of his grandchildren that he had not met. He died in peace two weeks later.

I learned a great lesson from that visit of how quickly I judged him based on his appearance and from what he did to the staff. What if I dismissed him from the beginning and had not listened with the ear of understanding? I don't think that man would have had a chance to tell his story and to tell Our Lord that he was truly sorry for turning away from Him and for not taking responsibility to be a good father and a good husband. Does that happen to us too? Do we quickly judge our neighbor, or do we look to Our Heavenly Father for help to be compassionate and to forgive our neighbor?

In our Gospel, Our Lord asked the soon-to-be disciples, "Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men." Then they abandoned their nets and followed him. Like Jonah in our First Reading, we all have been called by Our Lord to follow Him. He calls us to be His love in a world that wants to turn from Him, in a world that wants to turn from the Heavenly Father. In order to answer the call to follow Our Lord, we must be free of attachments. What keeps us from a life centered on Our Lord's life? What are the nets that we hold onto, that we think fulfill us, which we believe provide us security? Just as the disciples abandoned their nets, we must be able to let go of the attachments that prevent us from following Our Lord, from being Our Lord’s loving presence to hurting family members, broken neighbors and poverty-stricken communities.

Another time, I was called to visit a man who was dying at home. I was greeted by his wife and led to the room where her husband was in bed, his entire body was gaunt, and he could not speak well. She pulled me outside the room and began to tell me that he was actually her ex-husband. He had not been faithful to their marriage from the beginning, and she suffered many years of heartache. He asked for a divorce and she reluctantly agreed. She eventually remarried, and she lost track of her ex-husband who lived a life away from God, much like that man I mentioned in the beginning. Her ex-husband had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and was dying in a nursing home alone until she asked her current husband for permission to bring her ex-husband to their home to die. After I listened to her story, I went back to the room to hear his confession and to give him the Last Rites. He was truly sorry for all the ways that he hurt his ex-wife and his children and to Our Lord for not putting Him in the center of his life. What brought about this total transformation of heart in this man? It was the forgiving love of his ex-wife who could have easily left him at the nursing home, but she heard the call from Our Lord to be His love and compassion in this world. Our Lord had asked her to see her ex-husband from His perspective, as a beloved child who had strayed away. She answered His call and she let go of her memories of hurts and followed Our Lord. Just like that wife, Our Lord will lead us, if we allow Him, to a life immersed in love, and then we too will act with mercy each day. We will see in the face of each person we encounter Our Lord’s face and treat each person with the love and tenderness he deserves.